Looking to travel around Australia this summer or take up a new outdoor adventure sport? Want to lighten your load?
Quipmo is a gear sharing start up that allows you to rent other people’s gear on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly rate. So you don’t have to travel with your gear nor outlay a ton of money on equipment when you’re starting out.
If you’ve got bikes, surf, stand up paddle boards, kayaks, snow gear then you can also make some money from all that expensive equipment sitting idle in your garage. Just list your gear for rent on Quipmo which then acts as a browsing portal for travellers heading to your area.
The West Australia startup charges a 20% service fee on all rentals and owners can list as many items as they like for no charge. Then a two-way star rating and review system keep both gear owners and renters honest.
Most of the gear rentals in Australia and New Zealand are covered for damage, theft, and loss through the site.
“I thought someone needs to solve the problem of how to make accessing quality gear for adventurers more efficient, affordable, and well, just easy” says founder Chris Evans.
Gear is now listed in 21 countries and the venture has also forged 12 major strategic partnerships that include world sporting tours and international, national, and state sporting bodies across both able-bodied and adaptive sport.
Quipmo was awarded Austrade’s Going Global Award in 2019 and was selected by the Western Australian Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science, and Innovation to represent the State via a virtual trade mission at this year’s London Tech Week.
Chris is about to take Quipmo to the next level, having secured $500k pre-seed funding from Australian diversified private investment firm Eastcourt.
The new capital injection will be used to recruit critical hires in Queensland and extend Quipmo’s presence in the prime tourism region between Byron Bay and Noosa.
Evans said that while COVID-19 has created enormous challenges for the world’s travel and leisure sectors, Quipmo is incredibly bullish about the global domestic travel markets.
